Dibartolo Defense Loses Two Witnesses One Skips Court Appearance, The Other Refuses To Testify Against Former Deputy Accused Of Murder

Tom DiBartolo’s plan to convince jurors he didn’t kill his wife stalled Thursday when a key defense witness failed to show up and a second witness refused to testify.

The witness DiBartolo most wanted jurors to hear, Spokane resident Sam F. McNeal, claims he knows who the real killers are.

Defense attorney Maryann Moreno said she had no idea where McNeal is.

Late Thursday, Superior Court Judge Neal Q. Rielly issued a bench warrant for McNeal’s arrest. Until last weekend, he was living with a girlfriend near downtown Spokane.

McNeal, 37, testified at a hearing in late October when prosecutors tried to exclude his testimony from the murder trial.

At that time, McNeal said he drove two men across town the night of Nov. 2, 1996. He heard the man seated next to him in his car say to the other, “You didn’t have to shoot the bitch.”

McNeal said he asked the man in back, identified as Curtis Jones, what they meant. He said Jones replied, “You don’t want to know.”

McNeal said he later heard Patty DiBartolo had been murdered that night in Lincoln Park. He contacted authorities but police interviewed him and decided his story was unreliable.

They also said he has an extensive criminal record in California.

Thursday, Moreno expected McNeal to testify about what the two men talked about that night. But he would not have been allowed to directly repeat the words Jones’ companion allegedly said that night, since Rielly ruled that statement was hearsay.

While McNeal was nowhere to be found, defense witness Andre Scott Joseph came to court Thursday and refused to testify unless he first talked with an attorney.

Joseph, who spent part of last year in Spokane, was expected to testify about his knowledge of Jones and another man Moreno said might be involved in the murder.

Joseph, serving a state prison sentence for drug possession, said the Fifth Amendment protected him from having to make incriminating statements.

Rielly ordered that a public defender meet with Joseph to determine if he’ll change his mind about testifying. If so, he may testify today.

Both witnesses might have helped DiBartolo’s cause.

On Wednesday, he endured a six-hour grilling from prosecutors accusing him of numerous lies about his role in his wife’s murder. Prosecutors say he killed his wife to collect $100,000 in life insurance and to end an unhappy marriage.

The former sheriff’s deputy says he and his wife were in the park when two men surprised them and demanded money. One reached into their minivan, grabbed a handgun and then struggled with DiBartolo, he says. He says two shots were fired in the struggle - the first killing his wife, the second wounding him in the side.

The defense used several witnesses Thursday to try to undercut earlier prosecution suggestions that DiBartolo’s account was a lie and he was desperate for cash before the murder.

Two residents who lived near the park last November testified they heard several gunshots that night, fired 20 to 30 seconds apart.

That testimony contradicts statements made by prosecution witnesses who said they heard two gunshots, followed by two or three minutes of silence before three more shots erupted from the park.

Two of DiBartolo’s relatives - his brother Tony and sister Lynn Jones - testified that he never talked to them about money problems or insurance policies in the months before Patty DiBartolo’s death.

Prosecutors have said DiBartolo’s motive was to collect the insurance money, then enjoy relationships with other women. They also had witnesses testify DiBartolo frequently complained to police after the murder that he was not able to collect the insurance money because he was officially still a suspect.

Lynn Jones, a supervisor in a Spokane accounting firm, said the only person from DiBartolo’s family who asked her questions about finances was Patty DiBartolo.

Lynn Jones also said she was the one, not Tom DiBartolo, who first discussed Patty DiBartolo’s life insurance, a week after her death.

Later, DiBartolo told her about the problem keeping him from receiving the insurance money.

“I advised him to put some pressure on them and get that done,” she said.

, DataTimes